The Bell of the Ball

Our Eden by the Beach’s Community Arts Music Association ended its 105th International Series on a particularly high note when the U.K.’s 66-year-old Academy of St. Martin in the Fields – under the directorship of legendary Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell – played a sold-out concert at the Granada.

The wonderfully entertaining show featured the world premiere of Vince Mendoza’s “Flight of Moving Days,” a new commission to mark the centenary of founder Sir Neville Marriner, also featuring his New York-based percussionist grandson Douglas Marriner, whose father Andrew is principal clarinetist with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Luckily for us Mendoza was also in the audience!

Brahms’ “Violin Concerto in D Major” celebrated the concert’s halfway mark, with Bell, who has performed for three American presidents and the justices of the Supreme Court on his 1713 Huberman Stradivarius instrument, concluding the performance with Schumann’s “Symphony No.2 in C Major.”

It was Bell’s eighth visit since 1997. He can’t come back soon enough…